Cultural Models As Meaning Makers: an Empirical Exploration of Consumer Interpretations of Marketing Communications

ABSTRACT - This study investigates how internalized cultural models guide consumer interpretations of marketing messages. First I briefly explain how the epistemological positions of four dominant paradigmsCcognitivism, structuralism, postmodernism, and post-structuralismCcreate contradictory understandings of how consumers go about making sense of marketing messages. Second, I introduce a pilot study of (1) the interpretive strategies used by individuals to interpret advertisements and (2) how internalized cultural models influence these interpretive strategies. Third, I introduce an integrative conceptual framework that shows how, when, and why cultural models affect consumers’ understanding of the embedded meaning in marketing messages.

Citation:

Torsten Ringberg (2001) ,"Cultural Models As Meaning Makers: an Empirical Exploration of Consumer Interpretations of Marketing Communications", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 28, eds. Mary C. Gilly and Joan Meyers-Levy, Valdosta, GA : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 446.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 28, 2001     Page 446

CULTURAL MODELS AS MEANING MAKERS: AN EMPIRICAL EXPLORATION OF CONSUMER INTERPRETATIONS OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Torsten Ringberg, Penn State University

ABSTRACT -

This study investigates how internalized cultural models guide consumer interpretations of marketing messages. First I briefly explain how the epistemological positions of four dominant paradigmsCcognitivism, structuralism, postmodernism, and post-structuralismCcreate contradictory understandings of how consumers go about making sense of marketing messages. Second, I introduce a pilot study of (1) the interpretive strategies used by individuals to interpret advertisements and (2) how internalized cultural models influence these interpretive strategies. Third, I introduce an integrative conceptual framework that shows how, when, and why cultural models affect consumers’ understanding of the embedded meaning in marketing messages.

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